Monday, November 5, 2012

This is it -- public hearing on the biggest boondoggle ever proposed, a make-work corporate welfare, land speculator subsidy extravaganza, the "Salem River Crossing," with a Liar's budget of $670 MILLION, even though the planning budget alone is already overrun by FOUR years and 350%, blowing $7.5 million on a planned $2 million.

Read this great op-ed post (buried by the S-J in the small readership Monday paper instead of putting it in Sunday's): http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012311050013

It's crucial that you vote, yes, but voting is not enough, it's just the bare minimum; a healthy democracy requires real citizen engagement, even though the powers that be would prefer that you stay home and watch the Ducks and other circuses.

This absurd boondoggle was the spark that got LOVESalem started. The more we studied the absurd and intentionally deceptive and misleading output of the planning process, the more aware we became of the incredible void in Salem's information offerings, and we have aimed to help fill that void a bit, for going on five years now. This unbelievably bad idea is only understandable as the last gasp of the auto dinosaur mindset, where the concrete lobby and the Polk County land speculators and developers make their final stand against the fiscal conservatism they like to profess (for others).

Although there is a strong chance that this project collapses on the immense weight of its own internal contradictions and the gossamer thinness of its financial funding likelihood, there are still good reasons not to take that for granted. In other words, we still need you to come out tonight and help drive some nails into this monster's skull, because this is a zombie idea, and they never really die. Even though the chance of this being built is low, the harm from the boondoggle is already being felt, and if it were actually launched, Salem would become yet another city destroyed in the name of auto sprawl. The harm is too great to ignore this. Come out tonight and demand that this process be stopped, and that the money being wasted on high priced planning consultants be used for our real needs.

LOVESalem

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WORD

Communities exist for the health and enjoyment of those who live in them,

not for the convenience of those who drive through them, fly over them, or exploit their real estate for profit.

-- Ted Roszak, "Where the Wasteland Ends"

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us." (Henrik Tikkanen)

"Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends." (Lewis Mumford)Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

If you are thinking a year ahead, plant seeds. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it’s my responsibility to make it better. (Gov. Tom McCall)

Why This Blog?

Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.

The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.

The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.

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